There are widely known electroshock devices containing an autonomous electric power supply (storage cell or battery), a converter of the electric power supply's low-voltage direct current to direct current of 600-4000 volts, a storage capacitor and a circuit consisting of the sequentially engaged low-voltage coil of an output high-voltage pulse transformer and a switch for which, as a rule, a pneumatic or gas discharger is used with ignition voltage that is 15-50% less than the output voltage of the converter when empty, which are connected in parallel to the converter outlet. These devices have the following drawbacks:
1. A low performance index due to energy losses at the high-voltage output pulse transformer.
2. Insufficient duration and energy of the individual pulse for stopping a target, due to the insufficient induction coefficient of the known high-voltage pulse transformers in the requisite size for handheld devices, and the negligible performance index energy transmission from a large-capacity storage capacitor through a high-voltage pulse transformer to a target.
Contemporary notions on the physiological effectiveness of the impact of an electric shock impulse, corroborated by numerous experiments by a leading global manufacturer of a non-lethal electroshock weapon, Taser International, Inc. (USA), include two operative mechanisms of a physiologically effective electric impulse. The operative mechanism (technology) that was first studied and is used in an absolute majority of electroshock devices, called the STUN GUN, induces pain shock in the receptor nerve endings as a current of electric impulses of short duration (10-40 milliseconds) and negligible energy (0.05-0.1 J), with a frequency of about 100-200 Hz passes through the surface layers of the tissues and muscles. The effect of these impulses is to induce strong sensations of paid, which cannot stop an attacker having a substantial pain threshold. However, such impulses have considerable aftereffects, from several seconds to several minutes, after the current ceases, expressed in numbness, trembling, muscle contractions around the area where voltage was applied, and general unpleasant sensations that prevent the attacker from taking effective action during the indicated time period following the impact of the electroshock device. This condition that follows the use of the electroshock device against an attacker makes it relatively easy to capture (e.g., handcuff) him.
The second operative mechanism (technology) that uses an electric impulse, called the EMD [Electro-Muscular Disruption] effect, overwhelms the skeletal musculature due to the penetration of high-energy current (no less than 1.76 J) at a frequency of 10-30 Hz into the deep muscle layers. The passage of such impulses induces negligible pain sensations since the current travels below the receptor nerve endings, but at the same time the skeletal muscles are completely overwhelmed and cannot be directed at will. These impulses can stop an attacker with any pain threshold, leading to the attacker's falling down, virtually regardless of where the current is applied (trunk or extremity). However, these impulses have virtually no aftereffects (that is, after the current ceases to run through the target, no subsequent unpleasant sensations are observed that might reduce the target's level of activity), which precludes capturing the attacker after the current's effect ceases.
To the present day, attempts to combine the effects of the STUN GUN and EMD technologies in a single electrical impulse in standard high-voltage pulse transformers with a duration of 30-40 milliseconds, uniting the operative mechanisms of both impulses, have yielded no success, due to the varied depth at which the skeletal musculature is located in the human body (need for high energy in an individual impulse). However, with high energy delivered in individual impulses, the current from which spreads deep into the conducting body following Kirchgoff's rule, no pain shock is brought about in the receptor nerve endings located on the body's surface. Research conducted in the USA and Russia has shown that increasing the duration of the impulse to over 120-150 milliseconds makes it possible to substantially reduce (virtually by an order of magnitude) its energy in order to attain the operative mechanism of the EMD. However at the present time, the impulses in the widely-used high-voltage pulse transformers that meet other electrical performance requirements, including the chief performance property, “spark gap through air”, do not exceed 20-40 milliseconds in duration.
At present, the electroshock devices of the leading worldwide firm, Taser International, Inc., use the EMD technology in applying the Shaped Pulse technology (that is, preliminarily ionizing the discharge gap with a low-energy initial discharge in order for a strong impulse from the storage capacitor to pass along an ionized air channel). In the Shaped Pulse technology, an increase in the KPD of a discharge from storage capacitor(s) is attained by arranging for it to be discharged without being directly transformed into a discharge gap between the target and the shock electrodes (tactical electrodes), ionized by the preliminary, low-power discharge from the high-voltage pulse transformer.
An electroshock device that uses the EMD/Shaped Pulse technology is known under US Patent Publication No. 2004/156,163. It contains an autonomous electrical power supply; a converter of the electric power supply's direct-current low voltage to a current of about 2,000 volts, which is removable from the coil 3-4 of the converter transformer T1; a storage capacitor C1 that is connected in parallel through a diode D1 to the converter's outlet; a circuit made of a sequentially connected low-voltage coil of the high-voltage outgoing pulse transformer T2 (see FIGS. 23 and 24 of the patent description); and a switch GAP1, for which a gas discharger is used, the ignition voltage of which is 15-50% lower than the outgoing voltage of the converter when empty. The high-voltage coil of the impulse transformer has two coils; capacitors C2 and C3 and gas dischargers GAP2 and GAP3 are connected to each coil. Capacitors C2 and C3 are charged from separate coils of converter transformer T1 through diodes D2 and D3. After capacitor C1 is discharged through the primary coil of transformer T2, voltage in the phased secondary coils of transformer T2 turns out to be enclosed in the Rn-E1-GAP2-C2-C3-GAP3-E2 loop. At the same time, a disruption occurs among the device's discharge (tactical) electrodes. After the E1-Rn-E2 air gap is ruptured by a high-voltage discharge, its resistance goes down as a result of the ionization of the air, due to which the charged capacitors C2 and C3 begin discharging through the above-indicated contour, providing the basic power for the impulse that strikes the target. This device, and the one in FIG. 25 of the patent (the basic operating principle of which does not differ from the one described here) have the following drawbacks:
1. The low frequency of the strike impulses (no more than 25 Hz) with substantial pulse energy, approaching that of the EMD technology. Such a device facilitates performance of the target-stopping function, but when it is switched off it fails to fulfill the function of capturing the target, since the operative mechanism of the STUN GUN is not realized when discharge frequency is very low while discharge energy is substantial.
2. The complexity of executing the T1 and T2 transformers due to the large number of coils and the complications involved in isolating them to prevent abnormal disruptions between the turns of the coil.
Another electroshock device that uses Shaped Pulse technology is known under Russian patent No. 2108526 (see diagram in patent description). It contains an electric power supply, a direct-current converter 3 to convert the power supply's low voltage into voltage current in order to charge the storage capacitor C4, which is sequentially connected to the low-voltage coil of the high-voltage outgoing pulse transformer and discharger. The supplemental capacitor C5 is connected in parallel to capacitor C4 through the diode D6 from voltage converter 3. The high-voltage impulse transformer is made in the form of an autotransformer, the central terminal of which is connected to a common point of both capacitors and to the terminal of converter 3. One tactical (target-impacting) electrode is connected to the end of the autotransformer's high-voltage coil, while the other is connected to the point where the supplemental capacitor and diode connect. When the device operates, the converter simultaneously charges capacitors C4 and C5, the discharger 7 (having a low breakdown voltage of about 1000-2000 volts) breaks and capacitor C4 discharges into the low-voltage portion of the autotransformer's coil. Capacitor C5 is prevented by diode D6 from discharging into the low-voltage coil. A high-voltage pulse, induced in the high-voltage portion of the autotransformer coil in the event the target's resistance is far removed from tactical electrodes 12 and 13, breaks discharger 11 (usually called the “cutting electrodes” of the electric shocker). The spark travels through the air between the cutting electrodes without causing a discharge of capacitor C5. If the target resistance is located at a distance from tactical electrodes 12 and 13 that is less than the spark gap between the cutting electrodes, the discharge to the target occurs between tactical electrodes 12 and 13 and the reduced resistance of the ionized discharge channel causes capacitor C5 to discharge into that channel, which increases the force of the discharge. For the purpose of eliminating any residual direct current from capacitor C5 in the event the device acts through the cutting electrodes (for example, in a demonstration), the safety discharger 14 engages in sequence with the high-voltage circuit, at a breakdown voltage greater than that of the charged capacitor C5. This device has the following drawbacks:
1. The chief requirement in using electroshock devices is the capability of releasing a demonstration discharge in front of an aggressive attacker, upon which, as practice has shown, the visibly powerful discharge of the electroshock gun (i.e. color, noise) is in most cases sufficient to psychologically deter an attack.
2. The chief requirement in the commercial use of electroshock devices (basic sales principle) is also the visual appearance of the discharge, i.e., its color and the noise it produces, on the basis of which the buyer chooses in favor of one or another model of electroshock gun. Electroshock guns, even those that are truly more effective in the physiological effect of their discharge, always lose out to electroshock guns whose discharge is less effective physiologically but more visually effective. A demonstration discharge by the above-described electroshock gun, produced through the cutting electrodes (discharger 11), has a poor visual effect, since it is arranged without a discharge by capacitor C5, which contributes considerable noise to the visual appearance of the discharge and visibly enlarges its spark. Thus the commercialization from sales of the above-described electroshock device to develop the market and, accordingly, create additional jobs does not exceed the commercialization of all other models of electroshock devices under production. At present, no electroshock devices are being produced under the above-cited patent.
3. The production of high-voltage pulse transformers, a crucial component of an electroshock device for the quality of manufacture required, with wire of various diameters for the parts of the common coil (as required under the above-cited patent) is technologically complex and fails to attract the attention of manufacturers, as shown by the complete absence of autotransformer electroshock devices on the market.